Finished

It all started with the bamboo. The original plan called for two small clumps like the one in the bottom picture to remain, but the bigger clump growing where the fig tree is was threatening to knock down the fence so it all came out, creating essentially two climates in one small space: a hot sunny climate and a cool shady one.

Like the bones of the body, everything is connected in this garden, so trying to get the two sides to look connected was a challenge. The part beyond the frame remains a work in progress, but this little strip has been declared finished. All I have to do is put some mulch under the fig tree and over the black irrigation hoses.

The top picture features the area where the bamboo was taken out and a fig tree and new plants were planted. The bottom picture shows the one part of our garden which is almost always in shade...hence the chair which I dragged from the back. There are three more so we can always drag over another one if OilMan sits down long enough to admire his handiwork. 

Every time we replant part of the garden we have to decide what to do with the round rocks. They look nice but moving and replacing them is a real pain. In the end I decided to put them back because if I didn't, I would have to remove all the ones on the other side where the chair is. 

Every time I go through this exercise I wonder how many tons of rocks were scattered about this place during the landscaping process, and how they were transported either up the front driveway and up the stairs or down through the field behind the house and down the back stairs. Either way, stairs are involved.

We do it one by one in buckets....